A 65-year-old woman, Margaret Mowalola Akinduntire, has died after the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) allegedly refused to perform a critical surgery, citing the recent Ramadan fasting.
This is despite complications from a previous botched procedure where the hospital left a surgical needle inside her body.
In an exclusive interview with SaharaReporters, her son recounted a harrowing series of encounters with LASUTH spanning over a decade, alleging gross negligence and abandonment by the state-run hospital.
“In 2013, they operated on her because of kidney problem then. I think it was the right kidney. They had to take that out in 2013 and year later, 2014, we were in the sitting room that day, when something just pierced her at the same point she did her surgery. She touched it and she realised it was a sharp something. We did not know what it was then. We had to start making calls, and she made calls to the people there in the hospital. And she had to go there. This time they did not even give her the drug that would not make her not to feel the pain in LASUTH.
“They had to open her again while she was still very conscious. She was seeing and feeling the pain when they were reopening her. Guess what they found inside her? It was a needle. It was the needle they used in stitching during the first surgery. How could a general hospital for that matter forget needle inside someone? My family wanted to put the case then but I could not really recall what happened later that made them to stop it.”
The son said although she later underwent a successful leg surgery, a fibroid diagnosis in 2024 brought her back under LASUTH’s care— and into another wave of negligence.
“Later again, she did leg surgery, that one was okay, and no issue. Then last year, 2024, we discovered that she has been having fibroid. I didn’t know what fibroid is until last year she detected she had that. So last year, and the hospital said they would have to remove it. They gave her a date and we made preparation and everything. They removed the fibroid. After they removed her fibroid, the issue got complicated, and they claimed there was an error in the stitching of her body after surgery.”
According to him, the surgical error led to severe abdominal complications.
“So the error from the fibroid surgery led to my mum developing an abdominal turmoil and when the hospital discovered that, they had to do cancer tests and others. So they discovered that the turmoil is not cancerous. We were even happy that this is not cancerous. So we told them let’s take this thing out immediately before it gets worse.
“Then LASUTH said Ramadan was coming, and they had to shift the surgery to after Ramadan. So I don’t know that in the Ramadan, if someone is dying, LASUTH can’t save the person because it is during Ramadan.”
Things reportedly deteriorated rapidly after the hospital delayed the surgery.
“So fast forward till after Ramadan, my mum became worse. She was very lean, and stomach became very big. It was as if my mum is shrinking, and her stomach is becoming big. So what is the issue?
“They took her back to LASUTH, the surgical emergency department, she was there, they were meant to operate her and guess what, during the day of the operation, she went there, then all of a sudden, LASUTH said they can’t find her file and without that, they are not going to attend to her. And they literally rushed my mom there. My mom could not even walk anymore. She could hardly speak at this point. You are telling us you can’t find her file. Why will a competent hospital misplace a patient’s file? A dying patient for that matter?”
In desperation, the family took her to a private hospital in Agege where she was revived temporarily.
“So we took her to a private hospital at Agege because she was in need of treatment, those ones first revived her, they gave her some drips, and everything. She got better at least.”
It took a social media campaign and the intervention of the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for LASUTH to reverse course.
“At this point, my sister went to Twitter (X) to call LASUTH out and she also tagged the Governor. She shared me the link and I shared it to all my influencer friends, people with millions of followers, that please they should help me engage with the post. And the tweet gained traction and this led to the intervention of Lagos Governor. Sanwo-Olu called the hospital. After his call, the hospital texted my sister, and they said we should bring her back. Guess what? All of a sudden, LASUTH finds the file.”
He said internal sources later revealed the file was deliberately hidden because the hospital allegedly saw her as a hopeless case.
“It was later I heard from inside sources that the hospital intentionally held the file. Like it was intentional because they don’t want to waste their time. They said that she is going to die and why would they waste their time on her? And this is sad. Why would a hospital just give up on her like that? Someone that was still breathing. Her eyes were still opened. You just intentionally hid her files because you believe she is going to die.”
He concluded by saying she died on Wednesday at the Surgical Emergency Unit of LASUTH, still without receiving the critical surgery she needed.
“They hid the file, making no attempt to save her. And now my mum died on Wednesday at the Surgical Emergency Unit of the hospital.”
When contacted, the Management of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) denied the allegations.
The Chief Medical Director, Prof Adetokunbo Fabamwo described the claims as ‘untrue’ and baseless.
Speaking further, Prof. Adebowale Adekoya, another staff at LASUTH who is very privy to the incident also added that the allegations raised by the deceased’s son were false.
He said: “The son that met you was carried along in all the processes while treating his mum. We did not hide anything. And even the claim that the mother was denied surgery during Ramadan is not true. We have records to show several surgeries that were done during the Ramadan.”